Anatomy of a Scene: Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)

“Why is black better? Take your time.” We hear these words spoken by Bruce Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley) before the images of Bruce and Josh Waitzkin (Max Pomeranc) appear on the screen framed within a medium shot. We see the two of them sitting over a chess board in a softly lit room with the majority of the light coming in from an adjacent
window. In a sharp contrast, the chess board is brightly lit thanks to a lamp sitting beside it upon the same table.

The dialogue between the two continues while the audience in submerged in Josh’s explanation of his response to Bruce’s question with a close-up shot of the chess board - Joshes fingers pointing to the chess pieces portraying his mastery of the game. The director, Steven Zaillian, cuts to a close up of Bruce revealing an almost confused man who is at first worried and then delightfully relieved of his young pupil’s answer. Music subtly introduced in the background. A cut to Josh’s face makes it clear that he is proud of the acknowledgment from his mentor. After being told he just earned twenty master-class points, he gleefully reaches for his book and extends it across the table to have those points recorded. As Bruce is recoding the points in Joshes book, the off-screen sounds make it clear to the viewer that there has been an intrusion. The reaction shot of Josh is the viewer’s only visual cue of this intrusion. The look on Josh’s face turns from curiosity to that of worry.

The full shot of Jonathan Poe (Michael Nirenberg) and Poe's Teacher (Robert Stephens) entering the room with the teacher’s hand on Poe’s shoulder reveals the source of the intrusion. A cut back to Josh’s worried face reiterates his feelings of worry concerning his nemesis Jonathan Poe. With a slight hand gesture from his teacher, Poe beings to walk around the room observing his surroundings. He is walking from the left of the enclose of the from to the right; the camera trailing his movement. A cut to Joshes face – which has shifted to observe Poe’s new position is now half lit and still covered with concern. We hear what we quickly learn is the footsteps of Poe’s teacher and Josh turns to look at him. A close up of Poe’s teacher shows him wiggle his fingers at Josh as if to say “hello.” A medium shot of Josh and Bruce from over the right shoulder of an out-of-focus teacher reveals to the view what Poe’s teacher is observing.

By first looking at Josh and following his eyes to see what he is observing, Bruce learns the identity of the intruder. “You studying up on your end game, Bruce?” asks Poe’s teacher.

Sensing what’s about to come, Bruce turns to Josh: “Josh, go get yourself a Coke. We’re through here.” Josh is in a disconnected state staring at Poe’s teacher. Bruce leans in and restates “Get yourself a Coke” and Josh springs to his feet. A close up of Bruce shows he is excited to see Poe’s teacher. In fact, his facial expression reveals his not wanting to deal with this man’s presence.

“What do you want?” asks Bruce framed within a close up shot.

“Hello. How are you? How have you been?” is the response of Poe’s teacher. A cut back to a close up of Bruce is accompanied by the off screen voice of Poe’s teacher “How’s your health?” and as Poe’s teacher is reframed in a medium shot, he finishes with “any one of these would be appropriate.” Back to the over-the-right-shoulder shot, the viewer observes Bruce getting up from his chair and angrily standing up to his feet.

With this brief exchange, Zaillian establishes that there is a past connection between Bruce and Poe’s teacher. And judging by the tone of their current conversation, it is apparent they did not part in peace.

“I want to join the club. Well actually not me, my young friend. Jonathan here” Proclaims Poe’s teacher, turning to look at Poe who we find is standing above a chess game observing two men playing and laughs as to insult the move just made by one of the players.

Upon Bruce’s suggestion of Poe being brought back in a couple of years, Poe’s teacher insists upon getting an application from Bruce. With the next cut, Josh is followed back into the room, Coke in hand. He’s walking from the right of the frame to the left, camera trailing. He stops to look at Poe who himself is observing another couple engaged in a game of chess. Poe - seemingly board with that game – begins to pace. Music is once again introduced. Josh also begins to pace as though stalking Poe’s every move in what can be construed as a sense of worry. Poe looks up as he continues his stroll and sees Josh watching. The juxtapositioning of the shots of the two boy’s stroll around the room now shows Josh breaking eye-contact with Poe and again reconnecting all while they both continue with their strolls.

The boys break eye-contact in a very clever manner carried out superbly by the cinematographers (John Corso and Conrad L. Hall). As Poe is being trailed, the viewer’s sight of him is broken by an out-o-focus chess player. When he comes back into the viewer’s sight, he has broken eye-contact with Josh and changed direction in his stroll towards a chess board, setup upon a table waiting for a battle of the minds. Poe leans over the chess board while the off-screen voice of his teacher fills the room: “He’s been my student since he was four years old,” proclaims Poe’s teacher. The cut takes us back to Josh who is staring at Poe with an out-of-focus chess game in the foreground. “His parents have given him to me,” continues Poe’s teacher. The shot back on Bruce getting an application for the boy, Poe’s teacher continues: “Does nothing but play chess.” Bruce turns around with application in-hand. “No other interests.”

“He goes to school,” Bruce blurts out as though thinking out loud.

“Oh no,” responds Poe’s teacher. Bruce turns and looks at the man in shock and says “well, that’s great. You should be proud of yourself.”

“I am” proclaims Poe’s teacher, framed in a medium shot designed to display his excessive pride and hinting at his true intentions of dropping in unannounced. Bruce extends his hand holding the application with the look of disgust on his face. Poe’s teacher reaches out and snatched the application from Bruce’s hand.

With this exchange between Bruce and Poe’s teacher, Zaillian draws the parallels of character between Bruce and Poe’s teacher. Bruce walks away signaling he is done with the conversation. He is followed by Poe’s teacher who exclaims “you should watch him play, he reminds me of you, only he never gives up. It’s not a part of his character.”

Bruce calls out to Josh who meets him in the middle of the room and the two of them begin to make their way back towards the chess board with Bruce’s hand on Josh’s shoulder. As they pass Poe’s teacher who is on his way to meet his pupil, Poe’s teacher spews “He’s not going to disappoint his teacher.” It is with this phrase that the past connection between Poe’s teacher and Bruce is revealed.

As Poe’s teacher is walking towards Poe, he drops the application on a nearby table, confirming his intentions were not to seek admission into the chess club, but rather to gloat about his pupil. He then reaches Poe and the two of them walk toward the exit with his hand on Poe’s shoulder. His scene is juxtapositioned with that of Bruce and Josh walking with Bruce’s hand upon Josh’s shoulder. The scene ends with Bruce opening the can of Coke for Josh. Perhaps to highlight the distinct difference of how he cares for his pupil as opposed to Poe’s teacher, whose motives seem to be of a much more selfish nature.

eBay Auction: Investools PHD Program. Stocks, Options, and More.

Investools PHD Program
a $23,999 value

Program of High Distinction (PHD): Life is good at the top.

Auction Includes:

* Investing Basics Course Manual
* Stocks Course Manual
* Basic Options Course Manual
* Advanced Options Course Manual
* Advanced Technical Analysis Course Manual
* 5-Step Investing Formula Course Manual
* Basic Options DVD Set (4 discs)
* 5-Step Investing Formula DVD Set (4 discs)
* Advanced Options DVD Set (6 discs)
* Advanced Technical Analysis DVD Set (6 disc)
* Investools Investor Conference, Las Vegas Set (9 discs)

That's a total of 6 Course Manuals and 29 DVDs!

An Investools education is an excellent investment. It can inable you to make better investment decisions in financial markets. Every successful trade puts you one step closer to achieving your financial goals. Your Investools education will enable you to rely on facts to make decisions and not your emotions.

Whatever you're striving to achieve - a secure retirement, college tuition, improved 401(k) and IRA performance - this program will teach you how to position yourself fpr maximum potential return and accomplish your investing goals.

View Auction on eBay

Neolynx, Inc. Announces New Web Site Traffic Generation Serv

Get targeted traffic delivered to your website from Neolynx's network of quality websites. This is real human visitors they send to your site. The service allows for a high degree of control, such as allowing you to set the maximum number of daily visitors. You can also change your URL at any time. This is particularly useful if you want to split.

read more | digg story

Neolynx, Inc. Announces Free Web Design for Local Non-Profit Organizations

Neolynx Business Solutions, a leader in online marketing and web development services, has announced a unique opportunity for local non-profit organizations wishing to establish or expand their online presence. Beginning immediately, local non-profits can submit a brief online application for an opportunity to have Neolynx lend its expertise to the organization at no cost.

After finding great success being a part of the Southern California business community for almost a decade, Neolynx wants to show appreciation by giving back to the community. “We’ve felt a close connection with our community for a long time and have given back on the individual level. We recently decided to give back to the community through our company by lending our expertise to a worthy cause,” said Armen Mardirousi, President of Neolynx, Inc. “At Neolynx Business Solutions we believe together we can make the world a much better place.”

The search for a local non-profit is well on its way and will continue until application deadline, midnight on June 30, 2008.

For additional information on our free NPO web site, visit www.neolynx.com/npo.

The Art of Argument

Argument can be defined as the art of influencing others. With argument, the author attempts to influence the audience by getting them to act a certain way or to come to a favorable conclusion relative to the author’s position. A successful argument employs clearly defined terms, a fair use of information, and clear logic. When well executed, an argument is dramatic in nature; creating passionate debate on both sides of the issue-at-hand. Not all arguments end with one side declared the clear winner. Often times a compromise between many several extreme viewpoints is the only agreeable conclusion. To be able to persuade, the argument must be viewed as having merit. It is not merely enough to quote reports or studies; the author must use well-documented, credible sources in a well-executed manner.

Joe Kita – a writer and editor at Mens’ Health magazine – successfully persuades his audience with his well-researched and eloquently executed article (Kita 489). His augment immediately grabs the readers’ attention with its opening line: “Vertically challenged men are paying up to $80,000 to have their legs broken, caged, and then lengthened (Kita 489).” The following paragraphs introduce the reader to Jim Conran in his current condition following an operation to add inches to his height. Jim is described as having cages surrounding his legs like little scaffolds (Kita 489). Powerful descriptions like this coupled with quotes from credible sources help make a powerful argument.

Quoted estimates from economists at the University of Pennsylvania give the reader an insight to the thoughts and reasoning that might lead an individual to undergo such a painful procedure for a gain of three inches (Kita 491). Mr. Kita also quotes Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School as citing “a study of Fortune 500 CEOs that found that more than half were taller than 6 feet, and just 3 percent were shorter than 5’7” (Kita 491).” According to Etcoff, less than one-half of one percent of women marry men who are shorter than they are (Kita 491).

While there are many medically acceptable reasons for a painful procedure where the patient must undergo the agony of having bones broken and repositioned, the cosmetic use of this procedure has far too high a complication rate to justify the three inch gain. Known as the Ilizarov method, this method’s legitimate medical uses include the “correction of leg-length deformities, bow legs, anchondroplasis (dwarfism) (Kita 492).” Overall, there is a twenty-five percent complication rate from the surgery, with the most common problem being pin-site infection. A less common but still serious complication is nerve damage (Kita 492). The relatively high rate of such gruesome complications should be enough to discourage any sane individual from perusing such a horrendous act of self-mutilation.

With vivid descriptions and statistical references from experts in varying disciplines, Mr. Kita establishes a sound argument. He employs clearly defined terms, a fair use of information, and clear logic to support his position. This article makes it clear that perhaps the greatest benefit gained by undergoing this surgery is psychological rather than physical.

There being clear consensuses that sex and violent sells, it should come as no surprise that depictions of these very subjects are becoming increasingly graphic and widely available. Ron Kaufman proclaims: “One fact should not be in dispute: TV is violent! Guns, shootings, murders, hitting, punching, slapping, screaming, kicking, stabbing, explosions, car chases, car smashes, disasters, and death are shown daily throughout TV programming (693). Mr. Kaufman’s essay is a prime example of a well constructed and properly sourced argument. With charts and graphs from several well-known sources, he successfully argues the negative effects of violence on TV on children. His argument is well-planned and skillfully executed. With a logical outline – starting with the violence-driven storyline (694) to his conclusion that children watch too much television in this country (700), Mr. Kaufman makes a very strong case for turning off the TV for the children’s sake (706).

Being a trained teacher gives Mr. Kaufman an added level of credentials to speak on the subject of child behavior. His break-down of learned violent traits is broken down by age groups ranging from newborns to six graders (Kaufman 699). One study quoted that is particularly disturbing is that “high viewing levels have been shown to interfere with reading development (Kaufman 699). Knowing this makes it difficult to argue that our children’s lack of reading skills is directly linked to the fact that “the vast majority of children are growing up in homes where television is a near-constant presence (Kaufman 694).”

On the other end of the spectrum from the well-constructed argument lies the poorly-constructed argument. The poorly-constructed column on privacy written for the New York Times is a prime example of how not to argue (Herbert 613). Mr. Herbert starts off on the wrong foot. The first sentence of the first paragraph read: “A recent report out of Washington tells a story about . . . (Herbert 613).” If Mr. Herbert is attempting to build a credible argument, he has failed before even starting. The troubles with argument don’t end there. Mr. Herbert goes on to make outrages claims such as hidden video cameras being legally installed in bathrooms and dressing rooms (Herbert 613). There is not a single case that would merit installing video cameras in public restrooms or public dressing rooms. He later references a report released by the Center for Public Integrity. This might sound an important group, but not one many people are familiar with.

The writings of this columnist build no credibility with the reader and render his argument ineffective and utterly useless. With serious claims of invasion of privacy during computer training, Mr. Herbert should support his argument with concrete sources rather than a mere mention of an article he once read (Herbert 613). He further discredits himself with vague statements like “Congress has gone out of its way to preserve the right of employers to eavesdrop and otherwise spy upon and collect personal data on employees (Herbert 614)” and “tremendous amounts of money are being made from the rampant transfer of the most personal types of information (Herbert 614).” While both these statements might be completely accurate, a well constructed argument requires the author to provide supporting evidence – perhaps a few well-known examples in his conclusion can add credibility to this hopelessly ineffective argument.

The argumentative essay is a genre of writing that requires the author to investigate a topic, collect, generate, and evaluate evidence, and establish a position on the topic in a concise manner. It require the writer do more than simply state his views on a subject matter and hope that that the audience follows his argument blindly.

Works Cited

Herbert, Bob. “What Privacy Rights?” Elements of Argument. 8^th ed. Ed. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 613-14.

Kaufman, Ron. “Filling Their Mind with Death: TV Violence and Children.” Elements of Argument. 8^th ed. Ed. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 693-706.

Kita, Joe. “All to Be Tall.” Elements of Argument. 8^th ed. Ed. Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. 489-95.